


Friendly Ghosts

by SP4CEC4DET



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Reveal, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SP4CEC4DET/pseuds/SP4CEC4DET
Summary: Nico is pretty sure his boyfriend is haunted. Turns out, it's a little more complicated than that.
Relationships: Nico Flores/Thomas Sanders
Comments: 7
Kudos: 133





	Friendly Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> we are all love nico flores

Nico was pretty sure his new boyfriend was haunted.

To be fair, it seemed like a pretty benign haunting. Nico wasn't even sure if he believed in ghosts, but he wasn't really sure how else to explain what he'd experienced since meeting Thomas. He'd definitely seen Thomas's hair and clothes move in the still air of his house and he'd had several conversations with him about objects going missing where Thomas seemed to realize where the object in question had gone but was unable to explain how he knew or even sometimes where it was. Nico was also pretty certain he'd see a book fly at Thomas's head once but his boyfriend had pretend nothing had happened when Nico asked him, eloquently, "What the hell?". Nico wasn't sure if it was comforting or not that Thomas not only seemed perfectly aware of the possible ghosts, but maybe was maybe even protective of them with his secrecy. Nico had overheard Thomas having one-sided conversations plenty of times and always gave the excuse of "practicing lines for videos" whenever he asked. Nico would have believed him--he was pretty sure he'd heard Thomas use names from his videos once--if it weren't for the fact that Thomas was a terrible liar. And one other thing.

The most compelling moment for the ghost argument Nico had was the first time Thomas had had a panic attack around him. Nico had come over for a dinner date where they were planning to cook together, but everything that could have possibly gone wrong with the cooking had, and they had decided to order out instead. After the order was placed, Thomas excused himself to the bathroom where he spent a worrying amount of time that Nico decided to check on him. When he did, he saw something. For the briefest moment, as he was pushing open the door that had been ajar, he saw Thomas staring at himself in the mirror. And behind him, in his reflection, was a pale figure that looked remarkably like him--artfully messy brown hair obscuring make-up lined eyes, dark black and purple clothes making the figure look infinitely paler. Nico had made eye-contact with the figure in the mirror, the vibrant purple of it's eyes startling him to blink. And it was gone. And Thomas was stammering out an apology, clearly still shaken, and so Nico returned to his original task of comforting his boyfriend.

It wasn't for another month after that experience (about two and a half months after he and Thomas had started dating) that Nico developed a second theory.

He'd perused Thomas's YouTube channel after they met so he was well aware of the Sanders Sides series, but he hadn't actively watched any, preferring the unscripted videos as a way to definitely-not-sneakily learn more about the cute boy he was growing closer to. That was his excuse, at least, for not recognizing the figure in the mirror for who it had obviously been until he had been invited over to help with filming and hang out.

"Hey, Nico," Thomas greeted him from the couch while one of his friends--Quil, if he remembered right--was applying make-up to his face, "I would come over to hug you but I'm becoming emo."

Nico grinned, confused but amused, as the other people in the room let out various chuckles. Nico scanned the room, wracking his brain for names as he hung his coat in the closet. He recognized Joan and Talyn easily, having hung out with them and Thomas a few times now. He was pretty sure the two fiddling with cameras and lights by the stair case were Camden and Adri, which he only knew from definitely not cyber stalking his boyfriend.

"Don't let me stop you," Nico breezed as he let himself in and took a seat at the dining table, "I bet it's a good look on you, anyways."

"You be it is," Quil smiled, "People go nuts for Virgil." She leaned back, snapping the eyeshadow pallet shut. "Good to go buddy."

"Virgil is…your anxiety-character, right?" Nico asked, briefly distracted by his phone before looking up.

And seeing the pale figure again.

"You do your research before coming over?" it teased. Thomas teased. Thomas stood in front of him, purposefully rumpling his black and purple outfit as he crossed to the stairs. Nico watched him cutely adjust his hair in the camera's viewfinder like he'd seen him do a hundred times before, except he pushed it to the front, artfully messy and obscuring make-up lined eyes. The only thing making Nico relatively sure that Thomas had not, in fact, been replaced by a ghost, was his soft, brown eyes.

"You okay?" Thomas asked, peering through the bannister at him with a look of concern. Nico shook his head to clear it.

"Yeah," he laughed a bit, "Yeah you just…you look good." And despite the small crisis he was having, Nico meant it. He always meant it. He smiled as Thomas flushed, rolling his eyes.

"Shut up, you can't make me blush while we're filming," he laughed, drawing more of a laugh from Nico as well.

"Yeah, if you two are just going to be this sweet the whole time," Joan started, lifting their laptop, as they stood "I might have to ask you to leave."

Nico put his hands up in surrender, smiling still as he mimed zipping his mouth shut (flicking the imaginary key towards Thomas in what he was sure was an obvious Gravity Falls reference, I mean, they had been binging it together just the other night).

Nico had debated on it hard as the night went on, but by the time it was just him and Thomas, his boyfriend seemed so tired that bringing up his new theory to him seemed like something for another time.

Or another person.

"So, basically," Nico's friend, Jack started, "Your two options are that your boyfriend is haunted. Or he's…actually got magical multiple personality disorder."

Jack stared at him from his computer screen, eyebrow raised in derision.

"Yes."

Nico had opened up his monthly zoom call with his friend from Arizona with recounting all his experiences with Thomas and his potential ghost. And while Jack had been amused at the beginning, it was clear his friend got less amused the more serious Nico was about it all.

"It's not that I don't believe that you've seen these things," Jack began again, laughing as Nico rolled his eyes.

"Okay, here we go," Nico laughed.

"No, look!" Jack insisted, also beginning to laugh, "Look. I believe in ghosts more than you do. But the other thing is just ridiculous!"

"I know!" Nico laughed still, scrubbing his hand over his face, "But it was freakin' uncanny how much he looked like what I saw."

"I do think it's interesting that you saw such a clear specter," Jack said, jumping on the slight topic change, "He's got brothers, right? Is one of them dead?"

"You know what? That hasn't come up in any of our conversations, funnily enough."

By the time Jack had to hang up to go to work, they had abandoned the topic and Nico was no closer to an answer. The conversation had encouraged him, though, and he steeled himself to ask Thomas about it that night during their date night.

"So…there's no way for me to approach this in a normal way," Nico started, swirling the un-popped kernels in the glass bowl. The TV was paused on the end card of an episode of Gravity Falls and Thomas was in the kitchen getting more snacks and hot coco.

"Okay," Thomas said, smiling uncertainly as he came back to the couch, "There's no way for me to reply to that in a non-anxious way."

"Yeah," Nico smiled back sheepishly, "Sorry. I've been thinking about it all day and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a weird conversation no matter what. Not a bad one though!" he added quickly, "It's weird but no high-stakes, I promise."

"That does make me feel better," Thomas said, taking a sip of his drink, "Shoot."

"Do you have a dead brother?

Thomas choked on his hot coco, wincing and coughing as he laughed at Nico's completely matter-of-fact tone.

"What?"

"I've been seeing some weird stuff ever since we met," Nico started, "At first, I didn't think anything of it, weird stuff happens all the time. By the time I saw you ducking flying books, I thought you were probably just haunted."

Thomas let out another startled laugh at that, looking increasingly nervous as Nico continued.

"Then…during the date-that-shall-not-be-named," they both let out chuckles at that, "I thought I saw something in your mirror. It really looked like you--a second you, I mean. Standing behind you."

"So you…think I'm haunted by a dead brother?" Thomas put together.

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Well, I was pretty convinced after that," Nico shrugged, "Until that first day you invited me over for filming last month. Then I realized it didn't just look like you."

A look of realization crossed Thomas's face. And, once again, Nico got the distinct feeling that Thomas not only knew about whatever was going on, but he was keeping it from him.

"The…ghost or whatever that I saw. You looked exactly like it when you were dressed as Virgil for your video."

"Okay…?" Thomas looked at him, clearly not looking to volunteer any information.

"So…do you have anything you could give me to…make me feel not so…crazy?" Nico winced at his own word choice. He never like that word, but he wanted Thomas to be honest with him. He figured he should start by being honest himself; that was how he felt.

"Oh," Thomas sat up straight, reaching out to take Nico's hand, "Oh, gosh, Nico, I'm sorry. I-I never wanted to-to make you…I'm sorry."

"Thomas, I know we haven't really be going out for very long in the grand scheme of things," he sighed, lacing his fingers with Thomas's, "But I promise you, you can tell me anything. You'd have to say something pretty out there for…me to rethink how I feel about you."

"This…this is a lot heavy than I thought we'd be getting tonight," Thomas said with a tense laugh.

"I'm sorry," Nico laughed in kind.

"No, no," Thomas shook his head, giving Nico the most open look he'd ever seen, "I…knew I wanted to tell you about this…well, I'm not sure when we agreed on it."

Nico blinked. "We"?

"But I know we all care about you a lot. So if now is the time to tell you, then now is the time to tell you. Or maybe it will be easier to show you."

"Show me what?" Nico's voice was soft.

Thomas smiled, raising his free hand a bit. He looked at it, as if unsure it was going to work however he wanted it to, before pulling it up, like he was gesturing for something to rise.

And with a soft woosh, something did.

Nico blinked at the two new people in the room. Both looked remarkably like his boyfriend, but not as identical as when he played them in his videos.

"Um, Nico," Thomas said uncertainly, "Meet my Logical and my Moral Sides. Logan and Patton."

"It's a pleasure to meet--"

"We're so excited to meet you!!"

**Author's Note:**

> this was all i had planned for the time being, but i might add to it as i get ideas! i def want to do more with nico and all the sides!!


End file.
